Can a $49.99 tablet satisfy your gaming itch?
I have to say, this NOOK Tablet 7 is becoming one of my favorite devices I’ve tested recently. It’s small, pretty zippy, with full Android 8.1 Oreo Go edition, and apparently it can play a game or two. It’s time for a gaming test.Today I’m going to dive into 9 games, and I’ll go into how each performed with a little bit of game play from each. I’ll get this out right up front: none of these games were a bad experience on this tablet. Can you get better performance? Sure. But for $50 bucks this is pretty great!
Here's a quick reminder of the NOOK Tablet 7’s specs.
Be sure to check out the accompanying video below for game play footage on the NOOK Tablet 7".SoC: MediaTek MT8163CPU: Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.3GHzGPU: Mali-T720 MP2RAM: 1GB DDR3Storage: 16GB (12.2GB available)Screen: 7" 1024x600 IPS LCD
Alto's Adventure
I’ll start with Alto’s Adventure again. A nice casual endless runner style game that’s been out for a while. It runs great on this little tablet. No hiccups or stutters, and I even bested a previous personal best on this tablet while playing for this test. Not a bad start.Mars: Mars
This one seemed to give it a little more trouble, which I didn’t expect. Mars: Mars doesn’t strike me as a super demanding game. It wasn’t unplayable or anything, it was just the occasional skip or stutter. It wasn’t distracting, but it did happen a few times. I still played to 30 or so platforms on this tablet, and I could see jumping into this game again for a quick round of time wasting.Hearthstone
Hearthstone is up next, and I really enjoy this game on tablets usually. I think the small screen size distracts from the experience. Same reason I can’t seem to play this game on a phone. It ran fine though, even better in fact than the larger NOOK Tablet 10.1”. I played through a few training games to be sure, and it was a great experience. Especially for the price.Sonic 2
Now it’s time for some classic Sonic. If you watched my gaming test on the NOOK Tablet 10.1, you’ll know that this game really struggled on that larger tablet. It had to be running at 25% speed. I’m very happy to say that on this device, you won’t be disappointed! It ran flawlessly on this smaller NOOK.Minion Rush
Here’s another pretty easy win on this tablet: Minion Rush. This doesn’t seem to be a very demanding game at all, and it ran great on the NOOK Tablet 7.Angry Birds 2
Angry Birds is another classic mobile game I used to play a ton of, and it brought back some memories here on this little NOOK. It ran with no trouble, a great gameplay performance here.GTA: Vice City
After the surprising performance of GTA: Vice City on the NOOK Tablet 10.1”, I thought it’d be an easy win on this smaller NOOK with it’s 1024x600 display and decently powerful GPU, but I was mistaken. It ran, and I played through a bit of the first few missions, but I really had to turn the settings and even the resolution scaling down to get it to an enjoyable level. Once I found that sweet spot though, it performed well.Asphalt 8
Here’s one I was not expecting to go well. I tested Asphalt 8 on the larger NOOK Tablet, and it ran so poorly I had to cut the footage from my gaming test. Honestly, it wasn’t that much better here. Even after lowering the settings I was still met with some parts where you could tell the game wasn’t running at quite full speed. I was able to finish a few races, and I did end up enjoying the experience. I was even able to plan some takedowns and execute accordingly. So not bad overall, it was more than playable.World of Goo
World of Goo isn’t a really popular title, but it does seem to be addicting to me. I’ve found myself reinstalling this game randomly just to play through the levels. It’s fun, quirky, and very interesting. It also plays very well on this little NOOK tablet. I could see myself losing some time to this, I should probably uninstall it soon..Summary
Overall, this was a very pleasant gaming experience. Now, you probably won’t be playing Fortnite on this $50 budget tablet, if it would even let you install it, but based on these tests, you should be able to load up and enjoy several casual or even older more demanding titles. That’s why this little NOOK is becoming one of my favorite devices. For $50, with the included Google Play Store, and any game available in it, this would make a great tablet to pick up for a child, or even an adult who’s looking for a great little pocketable tablet that punches above its price point.Buy
Barnes and Noble NOOK Tablet 7"Price: $49.99
Buy one directly from Barnes and Noble:
That's all for this gaming test on the new NOOK Tablet 7”. I hope you enjoyed it. I've got some more videos coming up, including some comparisons with similar 7" and 8" devices and of course my full review. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
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